Invasion of Crabgrass

Invasion of Crabgrass

Tue Jul 25, 2017 2:18 pm

Hi guys and Gals

I'm new to the forum. Just signed up like 20 minutes ago. I am novice to lawn maintenance so I really need all the info and help I can take. I purchased a house early fall of last year. The grass was in decent shape due to the owner keeping it up while the house was on the market. So during the fall I just kept the grass cut and not doing anything else to it. In the spring of this year I had the grass aerated and I overseeded and put down some starter fertilizer. Learned all of that on youtube. Summer came and now I have crabgrass everywhere. Over 75% of my yard is covered in crabgrass. Also the grass spots that I do see is very thin. I also have a lot of brown patches. Not sure if it from the summer heat or if I have some type of grass disease. I thought it may have been the fertilizer but I put that down back in April and the brown spots did not appear until July. I only water twice a week so maybe the lack of water maybe the issue with the brown spots.

My question is what do I do to this crabgrass? Do I try and kill it before I aerate and overseed? I was told that a good frost will kill it. But if I overseed with the crabgrass there, will the new seeds be able to germinate in all that crabgrass?

Re: Invasion of Crabgrass

Tue Jul 25, 2017 3:56 pm

If it has covered more than 50% of the yard then you will have to kill everything and start over. The only grass that can really smother crabgrass out is Bermuda. I have it in my yard and it is invasive itself and thick.